Belgium is a member of the European Union and as such is bound by EU regulations. For pure substances, Belgian SDSs must be compliant with the EU’s GHS based CLP-regulation No. 1272/2008 – SDSs authored to be compliant with Directive 67/548/EEC have expired. For mixtures, SDSs must be compliant with 1272/2008.

For additional information on Belgian Chemical policy please refer to the Federal Public Service – Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment.

Belgium SDS Authoring The EU has fully adopted GHS under their CLP Regulation (Regulation on classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures). The deadline for having new SDSs has passed for pure substances – it was November 30, 2010. The deadline for mixtures was May 31, 2015. Not all the building blocks in the United Nations Purple Book were adopted by the EU CLP regulation. Furthermore, the EU has adopted the EU No 453/2010 format for SDSs, which goes well beyond what was recommended in the Purple Book.

It is relatively straight forward to have a single SDS for use among the countries of the European Union and European Free Trade Association, so long as it is in the necessary languages. Countries other than Belgium in the EU and EFTA where Dutch, French or German is an official language include Austria, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Netherlands and Switzerland. Having a single document for use in the United States and the European Union should be avoided due to significant differences between the two systems.